


Friends that Fight Together Almost Die Together

by Multifandom_damnation



Series: More than just children [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Shazam (Comics), Super Sons (Comics)
Genre: Abandonment Issues, Agony, Back Pain, Best Friends, Chronic Pain, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Green Kryptonite, Hurt/Comfort, I'll add more tags as i go, Mental Health Issues, Phobias, i love these boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 02:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14823788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: Sprinting one by one down to the sickbay, their footfalls thundering in the vast space of the Batcave, Shazam and Abuse held tightly to their friends until they were laid gently on hospital white bed sheets, tucking them in and stepping back to surrender them into the care of the Bat-family.“Do you think they’ll be ok?” Collin whispered to Billy later, reaching across the wide table they were seated at while they watched and waited, threading his fingers through his.Billy squeezed. “They will be now.”





	Friends that Fight Together Almost Die Together

**Author's Note:**

> I love these guys and love them working together. I think there needs to be more work with them all together because although they're not even really in the same universe and Colin technically doesn't exist anymore, I still think there should be more. 
> 
> (This is for oooi and Whoami? who asked for more. oooi for waiting a year for a new one and Whoami? for pestering me into writing one in two days instead of studying for SACs and I couldn't thank you more for it x)

Abuse and Shazam carried their precious cargo through the streets and alleys of Gotham city. Abuse with a young boy in yellow and green and black decorating his skin, head pillowed on his arm with a trickle of blood soaking down his skin from his raven hair, breathing shallow and eyes fluttering behind their lids. Shazam held another boy, taller than the other, in reads and blues, green shards dotting across his body from the pieces the larger men couldn’t get, his heart beat slow and his skin too cold to be normal.

They were both tired, footfalls landing heavily on the uneven ground and echoing in the silent night of the city. Abuse’s bones ached and groaned beneath his skin, the dull throbbing of agony shotting from the base of his spine to radiate into the rest of his body was only tell-tale of what was to come once he turned back. His skin was splattered in red, blood both his and Robins, bruises littered the expanse like comets on the beach and his breathing was ragged from the glass shards in his side. Shazam looked down at the large gash on his forearm as Superboy stirred and groaned in his arms. His pain was similar to his friends, and he knew that once they turned back they would both pass out from the pain, as they had last time and every other time before. His suit was ripped and torn and coated in sticky splashes of oil and blood. His ribs ached when he breathed, the pain darting along the fractures like lightning in the sky.

“Billy,” Collin said, looking through his hair at Shazam. “Do you think we should stop? We’re not going to make it tonight.”

“I don’t think _they’re_ going to make it tonight.” Billy sighed, looking at the boys in their arms. “We have to keep going.”

“You can get at least one of them home,” Collin argued quietly, pausing to push his shoulder back and crack his back with a grunt and a loud snapping sound, sighing through his nose at the respite from pain and continuing his walk. “Damian has a fever and I’m pretty sure a concussion. Jon is covered in Kryptonite. You know what that stuff does to _Superman_. We don’t even know if they’re any under the skin.”

Billy chewed at his lip before he answered, knowing that if he said the wrong thing, he’d send Collin into another panic attack. He barely got through the last one. “We got most of it off.” He told his friend quietly, standing closer to him and bumping shoulders. “If there _are_ any in his skin, they’re tiny slivers and Batman will take them out quickly when we get back.”

Collin’s shoulders relaxed slightly, the panic subsiding. “Yeah, ok, yeah. Right, Batman, we’ve got to get them home.” He eyed Billy again, begging with his eyes. “You could still fly at least one of them, if not both of them.”

Sighing, Billy nodded. “I can take them both.” He admitted, glaring at the ground. “But then I’d leave you-”

“I’ll be fine.” Collin said quickly, too quickly, and Billy paused his steady tread to look at him. “I just won’t change back until you come by and get me. I’ll be fine. I can handle myself, well, Abuse can. If you take them, they’ll get there tonight and then you can take care of them and they’ll be fine and you can get me later.” He was rambling now, his voice getting higher pitched despite being deep and rumbling, but he was frantic now and he needed Billy to _listen_. “I’ll be fine. If you take them, they’ll get help and so will you. I’m not even that bad.” He insisted, turning to face Billy who and paused and looked incredulously at his muscled friend.

Once Collin had finished his rant, Billy blinked once, mind made up. “No.” He said simply, turning and continued walking.

“Why not?” Collin exclaimed, jogging painfully to catch up with his friend, trying not to jostle Damian in his arms. “I swear, I’ll be fine.”

“Collin, you know you won’t cope with being left alone.”

“Fine! I’ll change back and you can carry me too.”

“You’ll be in too much pain to hold on. You remember what happened last time.”

Collin did, and he shivered as he recalled it. He’d been bed ridden for weeks and in constant unbearable pain. “Fine. Why don’t we call someone then? Have them pick us up?”

Billy shook his head. “Damian’s phone was shattered and Jon left his back at the farm. You don’t have one and I left mine at JL headquarters because I knew Damian would bring his. We don’t have any money for a payphone and anyway, who would we call?”

When there wasn’t any reply from his friend, Billy looked over to Colin staring heartbroken at Robin’s crumpled form held softly but securely in his much larger arms, eyes glued to the motionless form of his best friend with the fear and hopelessness that could only look like bravery and determination on Abuse and his vast frame, full of bulging veins and throbbing muscles, a dirty brown trench coat covering his body, brass plated knuckle dusters with his name on them. Often, Billy couldn’t help but compare silently in awe at the vast difference between Abuse and Colin Wilkes. One was big, menacing and strong with a voice as deep as the thrum of an airship powering up, all jagged scars and too-big teeth when he grinned. The other was tiny and timid, under-developed and sickly, feared most everything and with a voice so high pitched it was like a dog whistle when he was frantic or frightened, all knobbly knees and who was most commonly found clutching onto his teddy bear for dear life.

 “Alright,” Collin sighed after a moment of thinking, pulling Billy out of his thoughts. “We’ll walk then.” Damian shivered in his arms and borrowed closer into his trench coat, on hand gripping it painfully tight like a life line. In Billy’s, Jon moaned and threw his head back, eyes rolled up into his head so the whites shone like bonfires in the night. “Scratch that. We’ll run.”

As one, the Abuse and Shazam took off together, side by side down the run down streets of Gotham city to the brightly lit beacon of Wayne Manor, where they knew Alfred and Bruce and some other family members no doubt would be home resting from patrol and would be ready and determined to help their friends.

20 minutes later, the doors to Wayne Manor burst open in a frenzy of reds and browns and yellows and blues, the wood creaking and smashing against the walls and two very large men holding onto two smaller bundles of blood and cloth.

“Help them!” Abuse shouted, catching the attention of the rest of the house who scrambled quickly from where ever they were to land by the feet of the giant, panting, bleeding man with agony lacing his eyes, mixed in with fear. “Someone please, help Damian and Jon!”

Moments later, Bruce ran up, placing his hand against his son’s throat while Alfred did the same to Jon. Bruce held his arms out to Abuse, silently asking him to relinquish possession of his son, but Colin shook his head and held him tighter. Bruce sighed. “The Batcave, come quickly.” His eyes darted up the staircase to Dick holding tightly to the banister railing as if he were stopping himself from leaping over and going to his brother. Their eyes met. “Call Clark.” Bruce said and his eldest son was gone before the words had completely left his mouth, needing a task to keep himself from panicking.

Sprinting one by one down to the sickbay, their footfalls thundering in the vast space of the Batcave, Shazam and Abuse held tightly to their friends until they were laid gently on hospital white bed sheets, tucking them in and stepping back to surrender them into the care of the bat-family.

“Do you think they’ll be ok?” Collin whispered to Billy, reaching across the wide table they were seated at while they watched and waited, threading his fingers through his.

Billy squeezed. “They will be now.”

What seemed like hours later, Superman -still in civvies-  flew down the railing of the Batcave, eyes full of worry as he floated to his son’s side. He threaded his fingers through Jon’s hair, muttering quiet words of love and reassurances in his ear when he caught sight of the men sat at the table.

Colin was resting his head on Billy’s shoulder, his hat lying on the table, his hair over his eyes. His face was covered in fist sized bruises, cuts and scrapes and the soft grunting on every inhale told Clark that he was probably just as hurt-is not more- than the boys on the medical costs. Billy’s head was pillowed on his hand, eyes fluttering open and closed, the rattling to his breath and the mostly clotted over gash on his arm, the flecks of oil.

Clark knew firsthand what would happen when they turned back and knew why they were stalling, but with one glance with x-ray vision, Clark knew he needed to do something. Placing a kiss to Jon’s head, he stood up and strolled over to the exhausted boys.

“You should turn back and sleep.” Clark’s tone brokered no room for argument but as their head’s snapped up and their eyes widened to the same size as their mouths, he knew he was going to get one anyway.

“We can’t-” Billy objected.

“No no, we shouldn’t-” Colin shook his head.

“You know what will happen-”

“We’ve made that mistake before-”

“We’re better off waiting for them to wake up and then going home because-”

“We know better now because-”

In a great crescendo, they finished together as if reading each other’s minds. Or having had this same conversation with other adults. “It hurts too much otherwise.”

Knowing he was going to get nowhere with arguing, Superman sat down on one of the chairs at the table, removed his glasses and placing them on the tabletop. “Alright.” Clark said evenly, gently, understanding. “If you don’t want to leave, why don’t you tell me what happened?”

Slowly, tentatively, the boys sat up, grunting from the pain already setting into their bones and their joins. “We were ambushed.” Billy admitted, looking side eyed at Colin, who was hiding behind his hair and staring at the table as though he wanted it to open up and swallow him whole. “We didn’t see it and we walked right into a trap.”

“You didn’t sense it?” Clark asked, “Or Jon?”

“I hadn’t changed yet and Jon was arguing with Damian.” Billy explained, sighing as recollection hit. “I think it was about fighting tactics. Jon was making fun of Damian for having to build his tech when he had his biologically built in, like lasers.” Billy grimaced at the look on Clarks face and for ratting his friend out to his dad, but it needed to be done. “It was Colin who, uh, noticed.”

Surprised, Clark snapped his vision to Colin, who flinched from his gaze and slunk further into his massive form. “How’d you do that Colin?” he asked. “I didn’t think Abuse had any powers like that.”

A shake of an orange haired head was the only response Clark got from the boy and Billy put a hand on his friends back.

“Bane was there.” Billy continued “And a few lower-class criminals. It wasn’t too much to handle, but they had fire and oil-” he held up his arm, showing off the dark patches of oil sinking deep into the red of his uniform. “Colin pushed me out of the way and broke the flaming thing before it could get me. Jon jumped in front of Damian who was fending off a few guys and didn’t see the thing from behind. The canister was full of Kryptonite-”

“What colour was it?” Clark asked, dread filling into his heart and spreading through his body like the blood in his veins. “The Kryptonite.”

Billy blinked, exhaustion bringing a thick fog of confusion over his mind but Colin looked up tentatively for the first time since Clark spoke. “Green.” He explained “It was just green. I checked. I would have made Billy get here faster if it was any other colour.”

Clark nodded, relief falling into space between his veins thicker and stronger than the dread. “What happened next?”

Taking that as his cue to keep going, Billy recounted the story again. “Jon went out like a light and I carried him away and hid him. Damian was hit hard in the head and went down next so I took him to where I’d put Jon and went back to help Colin.”

_That explains how our boys got hurt,_ _not how they did_ , Clark thought glaring at the men in front of him. No, not men, these were just children, 10 year olds with too much responsibility and power and torment in their young lives that even aged up and turned into super powered fighting machines Clark was calling them _men_. Even though their voices were deeper and they were taller, stronger, more capable- Colin was still the paranoid little orphan with a teddy bear clutched permanently in his fist and Billy was still the bold boy who wore a fearful sneer on his lips in the face of danger. And here they were, hiding their injuries from a man who could _obviously_ see they were lying, all to make sure their friends got the help they deserved. Like men.

“Right.” Clark leant forward in his chair, forearms braced on the tabletop. “Thank you for looking after Damian and Jon. What about your injuries? How did you get them?”

Colin flinched, instantly sucking in a gasp of pain. Billy chewed on his bottom lip. He eyed Collin again, who looked about two sentences away from hiding his face in his hands. Billy sighed, squeezing Abuse’s hand. “Colin was ahead of us, said he heard something.” He reluctantly explained, felt Colin stiffen from beside him. “I said he was the first to notice? A thug jumped out from behind a wall and shoved a broken glass bottle into his side. He changed to Abuse instantly, but it was already mostly in there. He was the one who fought Bane while I got the others out, that’s why he’s covered in bruises. And the cuts and blood are from a few guys who got lucky hits on with knives.”

Resiting the urge to grap Collin and hold him, Clark stayed very still and nodded. “And you?” He asked Billy, meeting the youngers eyes.

“I lost sight of Damian at one point and someone came at me with a machete.” He clarified. “I didn’t see it and if it wasn’t for Jon pushing me out of the way it would have killed me. Bane punched me in the side before I could make it to Jon so I could take out the bigger pieces of Kryptonite and then Colin took over.”

“Did you subdue Bane?” Clark asked Colin, confused at another head shake.

“I shoved him over the pier and watched him swim away.” He mumbled, “I had more important things to worry about, like making sure all the Kryptonite was out of Jon and Damian didn’t die in my arms.”

Clark sighed. “You guys did a good job. Why don’t you change back, sleep here and we can fix you up while you’re asleep and then you can be here when the boys wake up?” He suggested, silently begging them with his eyes to agree.

They seemed to have a silent conversation, all expressions and gestures but Clark waited patiently. Suddenly, they paused, seemingly making up their mind and Superman bit his lip in anticipation. “Fine.” Billy submitted, holding tighter to his friend’s hand. “Try and hold it in.” He suggested to Colin who rolled his eyes weakly in response.

With a sound of bones stretching and reshaping, the cracking of muscles being put back into place, the pained pants and grunts and groans from Colin rapidly becoming a small boy and Billy raising his head up and calling " _Shazam_!" with a lightning bolt magically appearing from nowhere and hitting him , illumating his form in a blast of light until he shrunked down to normal sized before Superman’s very eyes, Colin and Billy’s bodies rearranged themselves to their normal sizes and shapes, the bruises and blood and pain magnified now on their smaller forms. Their eyes rolled back into their heads and they laid there, twitching in pain.

Clark carried them to the cots, placed them on separate beds and covered them in a blanket. Wiping the blood off their faces, he retold their story to Bruce and returned to his son’s bedside.

 

When they woke up, their ears were filled with joyful laughter and exasperated sighs, their bodies shaking from overexertion and agony, their eyes not wanting to open. Billy woke before Colin, his body bandaged and a glass of water with some tablets on the bedside which he promptly took. When Cullen stirred beside him, they both made their way past the flimsy paper curtain and stumbled to their friends, still covered in bruises and freshly wrapped bandages. They looked up as the curtain parted and was Damian _smiling_?

“I’m so glad you’re ok!” Jon cried as he leapt off the bed and ran to hug each of his friends, forgetting that super strength and body aching agony didn’t mix. “Dad told us what happened. We thought you weren’t gonna wake up for a while.”

Billy smiled at him. “I’m just glad you’re ok. We got most of the Kryptonite out, we just had to carry you both home.” He turned to Damian who hadn’t moved from his position on his bed. “How did they even get a hold of Kryptonite?”

“Father is looking into that as we speak.” He waved his hand absentmindedly before his eyes fixated on Colin, leaning heavily against the cold stone wall. “Is it true? Did you really take on Bane alone and win?”

Feeling the blush already spreading across his face and neck, Colin looked at the clipboard by Damian’s bedside instead of at his friend. “Yeah,” he mumbled, eyes scanning the paper without reading the words. “It’s not important. I wasn’t going to let him hurt you, so I got rid of him. Billy was needed more than me, so I kept Bane busy while he got you out.”

Damian had reached across now to grab at his friend’s arm, pull him closer and away from the wall. He turned his head and signalled for Alfred to hurry over, bending down to listen to what Damian had to whisper in his ear before nodding with a smile on his face and darting off almost as suddenly and as silently as he had come. “There’s something you’re not telling us, Wilkes.” While the name was usually said sharply, condescendingly to command and organise, this time it was said with love and patience and gratitude and everything Colin never thought himself capable of having. “What happened? What is weighing on you so heavily that you cannot even meet my eyes?”

That did it. Colin yanked his arm from Damian’s firm grip and fell to the ground at the foot of his bed with his head in his hands, sobbing deeply. “I’m sorry!” He bawled, yanking at his hair with his fingers as his palm pressed hard into his eye sockets. “I’m so sorry! It’s all my fault!”

Jon, Damian and Billy each exchanged confused looks until Jon (who was the only one able to function with painless movement) crouched down next to Colin, rubbing his back with one hand and raising his chin up with the other. “What are you talking about Colin?” He asked, rubbing soothing circles on his friends back. He was thin, Jon could feel the uneven bumps of his spine and ribs through his skin, trembling with pain and the exhaustion of long consecutive nights as Abuse. He wondered if the women at the orphanage was feeding him. “You’ve done nothing wrong. We don’t blame you for anything.”

“B-but-”, Collin was blabbering, the words he wanted to say slipping too fast and not fully formed out of his tear and snot and spit soaked lips as he tried to breathe through the pain in his bones and the pain in his lungs and the pain in his heart. “I was in the f-front, I-I should have seen it before any-anyone else could get hurt and if-if I was paying just a little m-more a-attention then we wouldn’t be in this mess a-and you wouldn’t have gotten h-hurt.”

Arms tightening around his shaking friend, Jon shushed him with calming and loving words until Colin’s tears tapered off into dry sobs and tremors. He wiped the tears from his face. “I’m really really sorry.” He whispered, eyes low to the ground.

Suddenly, another pair off arms were wrapped around him, helping to lift him and pull him onto Damian’s cot where he dragged his friend to lay beside him. Jon pulled his over so it was flush next to Damian’s and dragged Billy to join him as well. “You have nothing to be sorry for.” Damian insisted, voice soft and caring, although that just might be the mild concussion. “We should have been paying closer attention. Do not worry Colin, just sleep tonight and tomorrow we can focus on getting better.”

“You know I can’t sleep,” he yawned, eyes wide open. “That’s why I wanted to go home. I didn’t bring Rory, I left him in my room.”

Damian hummed, a smile playing on his lips. “Did you?” He asked smugly, knowing the answer. “Because I was so sure that you brought him over that I sent Pennyworth to fetch him for you.”

As if on cue, a finely tailored black suited arm shoved its way through a gap in the paper curtain and Colin gasped, frantically reaching for the old and worn teddy bear in its grasp. “Thank you, Alfred!” He breathed, clutching Rory tightly to his chest as though it were protecting his heart like a layer of cartilage. “Thank you so much!”

A soft, receding chuckle told the boys that they were alone once again, and as Colin settled down between the folds of thin blankets and friendship, finally calm for the first time that night, they realised no amount of debating and arguing could bring them closer together than nearly dying together every night and fighting side-by-side in a family unit tied by stands of friendship, stronger than detest and competition and annoyance.

Now, their only problem was stopping Colin from looking up at the ceiling tomorrow and seeing a roof filled with dark bats, a fact he had forgotten as he barged down in a panic before, and Damian pre-emptively covered his snoring friends head with one of the blankets to prolong the inevitable.

Billy threaded his fingers through Colin’s again and squeezed.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I have a few HC's about these boys:  
> 1) When Colin turns back to normal Colin after long, consecutive nights as Abuse, he has extreme and chronic back/body pain from turning into a huge muscle man and then reshaping into Colin.  
> 2) The same thing happens to Billy after long nights as Shazam, but it's more a throbbing pain from the excessive use of magic instead of everything else.   
> 3) They all meet at the Manor before patrol so Colin usually brings Rory over and leaves him there until he comes back  
> 4) Damian and Jon bicker all the time and try and get under each other's skin but very rarely do they actually mean any of it.   
> 5) Due to his paranoia and abandonment issues, I think Colin would have an anxiety disorder and would frequency have panic/anxiety attacks  
> 6) Jon and Dami love and trust Colin and Billy with their lives  
> 7) Everyone is used to Colin's "it's all my fault" moments because he thinks EVERYTHING that goes wrong is his fault but by now they know how to handle it  
> 8) The longer they are in their other forms the stronger the pain is so I like to think that often the pain is so bad that they don't want to change back because as long as they are Abuse and Shazam they heal and can take the pain but it ends up hurting Colin and Billy in the long run, so much so that sometimes their bodies just shut down and they pass out


End file.
